70 Yasuke : Blood Red Kusarigama

There was a strong flash of red light, and a weapon floated into view in front of Taira.

It was a one handed scythe with a two feet long crystallized handle of a dark red color.

The blade was a bright golden color, with a length matching exactly three feet and a wickedly sharp edge that looked like it could cut metal and bone with ease.

A golden chain billowed in the air around the weapon, connecting the scythe to a short but lethal looking dagger of the same design.

Suddenly the weapon let out a low hum, and Taira immediately raised a brow in surprise.

"Are you.. greeting me?"

As a response, the weapon hummed again before it changed right before Taira's eyes.

The golden chain at the bottom of the scythe hilt suddenly straightened out and became encased in a cryristalline red material just like the rest of the handle.

The golden blade widened and became larger and more wicked looking like the demonic wing of a bat.

It now came to a length of four feet instead of the previous three.

When the weapon was done transforming, the scythe of around seven foot in height planted itself in the ground in front of Taira, seemingly waiting for the chance to be picked up.

"Well now… quite the showy little thing, aren't you?"

Taira finally stood up front his place atop the tree stump and pulled the weapon into his hand.

As soon as he did so, he raised a brow in surprise.

This weapon was not only heavy, but it felt oddly unbalanced as well.

It was easily one of the largest weapons he'd ever seen, and he didn't know if he was going to be able to use it much in enclosed spaces.

But it was perfect.

Just from a single touch of the smooth ruby hilt, Taira got a greater sense of synchronicity than any that he'd ever had with a weapon.

He was out of qi, so his energy was a bit too low to practice with it seriously, but he could do a few simple swings.

And once he did, he realized his previous assessment was correct.

Both as a chain weapon and a scythe, this weapon complemented his fighting style like it was made for him.

He did not have any scythe arts or even kusarigama arts, so he was unable to bring out his weapon's full potential, but his hope was that he would be able to find some in the near future.

Holding the massive scythe in one hand, he stared at it carefully as if he was trying to find out what he could be missing.

Briefly, he recalled Keran's fervent words from earlier when she was explaining his new transformation to him.

'Names have power, beloved!'

Taira stared at the beautiful red and gold weapon for a long time before he made a decision.

"Yasuke."

A dull red glow encompassed the scythe before it let out a happy hum and floated around him in a circle.

"You… are definitely a special weapon, aren't you?"

*continued humming.*

Taira chuckled a bit before he returned the weapon to the gem on his chest.

….Only for it to come right back out a few seconds later.

*insistent humming*

"…You want to give me a ride home…?"

*happy humming*

"…Alright then. I suppose it's not like I feel like walking anyway."

Taira leapt atop the floating scythe and stood comfortably on the red handle.

The weapon soon carried him into the sky above and flew at a fairly impressive speed.

As Taira flew back home, his mind once again drifted towards the reason he'd left in the first place.

Truth be told, it wasn't really his responsibility to do anything about what was going on at the auction house.

And yet.. he wanted to.

For some reason that he truly couldn't quite understand, he felt a need to terrorize not only the humans slinking around in the city, but the pig bastard who was working with them as well.

Keran always wanted him to be a champion for their people.

And she hadn't said anything yet, but he knew that now that he was one of the supreme fallen, her expectations of him had likely tripled.

He did not know if he could meet her faith exactly as she foresaw it.

But, if he could find a way to do things his way, without the pressures of leadership from others, then he would do so.

And he believed that he finally may have gotten some inkling of which path to take.

Taira finally arrived above the lake house and jumped off of Yasuke gracefully.

Before his body had touched the ground, his weapon had re entered his body and showed no signs of exiting on its own again.

Stepping right up to the front door, Taira prepared to open it when someone else apparently beat him to it.

Vermeil appeared to have waiting for him for a while, and now that he had finally arrived she was feeling shy.

She thought that she would feel slightly nervous when he arrived, but this was more than what she expected.

"Vermeil?"

"H-Hello..! I just, umm… I wanted to say that I'm going to figure myself out… and when I do… I hope you like the person I've become."

"…?"

As Taira looked down at the young human with great confusion, she suddenly threw her arms around him in a hug.

He tried to listen to her mind to learn just why she might have been acting like this, but since she was trying so hard to keep a lid on her inner thoughts he eventually left it alone.

Just as he was about to hug her back, she suddenly released him and started to run upstairs.

"S-Sorry for being weird, talk to you later! Bye-bye!"

"…right…okay?" He said as he stepped inside the house."

"Someone's popular."

Taira found Aveena sitting on the couch with Keran.

Her bandages had been freshly changed and now it looked like the werewolf princess was in the process of feeding her some warm porridge.

"It seems I have more competition than I initially thought. The battle to win your body will be that much more- mmf?!"

Keran somewhat aggressively shoved another spoonful of porridge into the oni's mouth as she showed her a smile that was not a smile.

"Now now, let's not talk and just focus on eating okay?"

"I am not a baby!"

"Open wide~"

"What did I just- mmf!"

Keran then turned back to Taira and smiled at him rather knowingly.

"You look a lot better now, and congratulations on your breakthrough. I assume you've come to a decision about what you want to do?"

Nodding, he sat on the couch beside her and stared up into the ceiling. "You could say that."

"When will you be ready to move?"

"…Give me seven days."

Keran wasn't all that thrilled about the timeline, but she knew based off all of the time she spent watching him as a child that this was the way that he worked best.

"Alright, seven days. But make sure that no one else gets hurt, beloved."

"Of course."